By Dana Gerber Globe Staff,Updated December 15, 2024, 4:46 p.m.
Whitneys, a Harvard Square bar, is closing.Courtesy of Dan McGuire
Whitneys, a stalwart Harvard Square dive bar emblematic of the once-gritty neighborhood, said Friday it is closing at the end of the year after a months-long dispute with its landlord.
The stomping ground, which has been a Cambridge mainstay since 1953, has been battling its landlord to stay in its JFK Street location, said owner Dan McGuire, who took over the spot six years ago.
Since the pandemic, McGuire said, the owners have been “trying to kick me out of here for some reason or another.” He said he withheld back rent in an escrow account for a period of time due to a dispute with the landlord, Mayhaw LLC, over a power upgrade for the bar. Most recently, he said, the landlord’s grievance was about daytime noise issues.
Finally, over the summer, Mayhaw brought eviction proceedings. In October, the parties agreed in Cambridge District Court that if Whitneys closed up shop by Jan. 1 of next year, vacated by Jan. 15, and didn’t play music during the daytime or allow live music or bands at the bar, that Mayhaw would waive the $44,800 in owed back rent.
But McGuire, a native of Central Square, said he isn’t going down without a fight.
“I watched this square go through so many changes,” said McGuire. “My big thing now is, even if I don’t survive here — which, I’m going to do everything I can to survive . . . the people that come to Whitneys now, they’re never going to come to the square again.”
In response to a request for comment, the attorney for Mayhaw LLC, Lori A. Drayton, said the closing is a result of the bar’s “failure to pay any rent since October 2023, not due to any noise issues.”
“The landlord made extensive efforts during the pandemic and after to preserve Whitney’s tenancy. Unfortunately, Whitneys’ continued failure to pay any rent resulted in an amicable settlement agreement to cease operations at year end,” the attorney said. “We wish Dan well in his future endeavors.”
Whitneys in Harvard Square has been a stomping ground for more than 70 years.Courtesy of Dan McGuire
McGuire, who said he will speak about the closing in front of the Cambridge City Council on Monday, hopes that going public now will fuel a public outcry that will force the landlord to “wake up” and preserve the bar, which employs eight people.
“I’m not looking for a handout. I’m not looking to be the rebel. I’m looking to hold on to a piece of history in this square that is constantly being taken away,” he said.
Whitneys’ last day will be Dec. 31. Any last patrons can check out the Polaroid photos that line the back wall — bartenders take drinkers’ pictures if it’s not too busy — scrawled with messages from years of rowdy college students and sports fans.
Whitney’s of Harvard Square, a dive bar that opened in 1953, seen Sept. 24, 2021. (Photo: Marc Levy)
Whitney’s of Harvard Square, an area dive bar open for more than seven decades, says it is being forced to close Dec. 31 by property owner Mayhaw, a business of billionaire Gerald Chan.
The claimed reason is daytime noise levels, owner Dan McGuire said in a Friday press release, while a lawyer for the landlord says the problem is lack of payment of rent.
“Since 1953, Whitney’s remains a gathering place where friendships are forged, stories are shared and memories are made,” but in June, McGuire was “notified that an eviction was forthcoming. After months of negotiation and attempts to get clarification behind the overwhelming news, McGuire was given a final notice of eviction,” according to the press release.
The daytime noise levels were “quickly acknowledged and rectified,” according to the press release. Publicist Dominic Amenta said there had been no complaints made to Cambridge officials for Whitney’s to respond to.
“Whitney’s has always played music in accordance with our entertainment license, and we have never had to meet with the City of Cambridge and its License Commission for any noise complaint. We’re beginning to think ‘noise’ truly cannot be the reason for wanting us to leave, and leave in such a hurry, after our repeated assurances that we would keep the volume down,” said McGuire in the press release. (Chan’s company has offices above him, McGuire said.) “We had a good tenant-landlord relationship ever since I took ownership of my local neighborhood bar six years ago. I always defended Gerald when others in the square would inquire about his dormant buildings and venues that have gone vacant for long periods of time, for example, the Harvard Square Theater and Dickson Bros., as well as the demise of Upstairs on the Square. Never did I think we would share a similar fate.”
Rent payments
Lori A. Drayton of Drayton Law, representing Mayhaw, said Whitney’s is leaving “solely due to its failure to pay any rent since October 2023, not due to any noise issues.”
“The landlord made extensive efforts during the pandemic and after to preserve Whitney’s tenancy. Unfortunately, Whitney’s continued failure to pay any rent resulted in an amicable settlement agreement to cease operations at year end,” Drayton said. “We wish Dan well in his future endeavors.”
The rent was being withheld and put into escrow because Mayhaw promised upgrades and never followed through, and the company dropped it side of the conversation because it simply wanted Whitney’s out, McGuire said, because the ramshackle place doesn’t match the other properties in the area. A stipulation between Mayhaw and McGuire’s Fat Heady LLC shared with Cambridge Day shows the bar being forgiven $44,800 in back rent if it’s out by Jan. 15. It also calls for limits on music and noise until it closes before Jan. 1.
Whitney’s existed as bar through a period that Cambridge insisted it had none – forcing businesses to describe simple food services such as hot dogs or peanuts as having a “kitchen.” But it was beloved as a bar, described by the Harvard Crimson in 2001 as being “one of the most unique – and best” in Cambridge. “Martini maniacs may not find any fancy concoctions on the menu, but they do have beer – and three kinds of hard lemonade – for reasonable prices,” Crimson staff wrote. “Even though none of the regulars have sat in on an Ec10 lecture, they’re just as solid a part of the Harvard culture and count on Whitney’s as a hideaway from all those bratty college kids.”
Hopeful for a solution
Chan’s ownership of several sites in the square has been controversial, with the the defunct AMC Loews Harvard Square 5 on Church Street being a particular sore point back to a City Council-set deadline for action back in 2017.
Denise Jillson, executive director of the Harvard Square Business Association, said the potential shutdown of Whitney’s was “so distressing and disappointing.”
“We’re hopeful something can be worked out. Seventy-one years in Harvard Square is a really long time,” Jillson said. “We’re always hopeful.” She pointed to other legacy businesses, such as Bob Slate Stationers or the Curious George children’s bookstore, that found lifelines after an announced closing.
“A devastating close”
The Whitney’s situation is expected to be brought forward for discussion at Monday’s council meeting, Amenta said, but it is not on the agenda posted in advance. If the topic is brought forward as a late policy order, public comment might be barred by Mayor E. Denise Simmons – but McGuire said it was Simmons who agreed to file that late order.
McGuire seemed unsure Friday that City Council attention would help.
“We’ve weathered economic shifts, recessions, even a two-year pandemic, but this is a challenge we can’t overcome. While this 70-year chapter comes to a devastating close for me, my staff and our loyal patrons, the memories we’ve created together will go on,” McGuire said.
CAMBRIDGE – It is always sad to see an old familiar face leave, be it a family member, close friend, or even a neighborhood institution like Harvard Square’s Out of Town News newsstand. Such kiosks served as communal hubs that sold teen magazines to youngsters and newspapers to adults on the way to work for decades. However, they were more than that and represented a special era involving the wonderful world of print before ushering in the digital age.
Founded in 1950s Out of Town News was founded by Sheldon Cohen in 1955 following the death of his father who used to hawk newspapers with him outside the square’s T station when he was 11 years old. Cohen would go on to earn the title “Unofficial Mayor of Harvard Square” thanks to his beloved business which is now listed on the National Register of Historical Places. Former beleaguered senator and Cambridge mayor Anthony D. Galluccio was once an employee.
The landmark Out of Town News kiosk in Harvard Square in Cambridge was founded by Sheldon Cohen in 1955. Photo/Courtesy of Cambridge Historical Commission
In May 1998, the city dedicated the Out of Town News kiosk area “Sheldon Cohen Island” after the longtime civic leader and philanthropist who began selling papers there in 1944.
Out of Town News was known for its wide selection of several thousand local, national, international newspapers, lesser-known journals, and hobby periodicals. During its prime, the 500-square foot newsstand sold approximately 600 London papers on Sundays and 1,500 Irish papers a week. Long-time patrons bought hard-to-find magazines on photography, guitars, and computers. Former customers took time to reflect on Facebook.
Amy McGrath Huges wrote:
“I purchased SO many tickets there. Squeezing into the small area…magical days.”
Nekita Lamour added:
“I missed the kiosk. I used to buy foreign papers there. Was in Harvard Square the other day and saw the change.”
Kevin Duffy wrote:
“Many memories. Trying to sneak peaks at the skin mags with my friends, back in middle school. Getting kicked out, then slithering across the street to Nini’s Corner and doing the same thing. Later on, paying $3.00 for week-old Dutch newspapers, for my homesick wife.”
Yoga teacher Diana Feik paid regular visits to Out of Town News since she became a U.S. citizen. In 2019, Feik told WBUR, “Well, I come usually for my German magazines. I’m from Germany. But there’s none left because they’re closing, right? So, I get the Halloween magazines for my kids.”
Famous customers Before closing its doors and synergy in 2019, the business could depend on regular celebrity clientele like Julia Child who browsed for German and Italian cooking magazines, poet Robert Frost and Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft. In 1975, a 21-year-old Allen was a programmer at Honeywell. One day, he stopped by the kiosk and purchased a Popular Electronics magazine, whose cover featured a photo of the “World’s First Minicomputer Kit,” showed it to his friend Bill Gates and the rest is history.
The Out of Town News kiosk in Harvard Square in Cambridge, still thriving at the time of this photo in 2001, closed in 2019.
Somerville resident Cara J. Giaimo admitted Out of Town News was the first place she would go to buy a physical newspaper, stating that, “I always think of it as a very communal space. When you go inside, you can get so many things from so many different places.”
While digital news formats are convenient, there is no substituting for the community feel newsstands like the iconic Out of Town News provided especially to academics. It was a place to peruse through pages of material from around the globe and buy souvenirs. It was a central beacon where people gathered. Now practically extinct, there were a countless number of newsstands across America but only one Out of Town News.
Founder Sheldon Cohen, who sold the newsstand in 1994 and once pondered taking it back to bring some life back to the square, passed away in 2023 at the age of 92.
Several festive pop-up bars in and around Boston are stirring up the holiday spirit.
These temporary bars are adorned with festive decorations and feature seasonal cocktails meant to elicit the warm and fuzzy feeling synonymous with the holidays.
Below are eight bars where you can get some holiday cheer and beer.
Loco Fenway’s second annual holiday pop-up bar Santa’s Cantina.Assembly Design Studio
This is the second year that Loco Fenway has transformed into Santa’s Cantina for the holiday season. The pop-up, which will be up through the month of January, features festive food and drink specials such as Ghost of Christmas Past, Glen Cocoa, Yukon Cornelius and Ya Filthy Animal.
Loco Fenway is open from 11 a.m. to 1 a.m. Monday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 1 a.m. Saturday and Sunday.
Blitzen’s Bar at The Last Hurrah in the Omni Parker House
60 School St., Boston
The Omni Parker House in Boston has a holiday pop-up bar called Blitzen’s Bar.Omni Hotel & Resorts
The Omni Parker House invites guests to toast the holidays with the launch of its new seasonal pop-up, Blitzen’s Bar. The pop-up will take over the hotel’s bar, The Last Hurrah, from now until Monday, Dec. 30.
Blitzen’s features 12 cocktails, including The Blitzen, Frost Bite and Tidings of Whiskey & Joy. A festive food menu consisting of Reindeer Nuggets, Ralphie’s Nibbles, Popcorn Garlands and more is also available.
The bar is first-come, first-serve and is open from 4 p.m. to midnight daily.
The Holly Jolly Bar is a Christmas pop-up bar at Harpoon Brewery in Seaport.David Cifarelli
Harpoon Brewery in Seaport will be decked out in holiday cheer from now until Jan. 4, 2025. The Holly Jolly Bar features “over-the-top” Christmas decor and festive cocktails such as the Prancer’s Pomegranate Margarita, Icicle Tea and Espres-snow Martini.
The bar also offers several small bites, including a cinnamon sugar pretzel, pumpkin pie and cannoli chips.
General admission starts at $18 per person and comes with a 90-minute reservation and one welcome cocktail. Reservations can be made online.
Miracle pop-up bar will be at the Kimpton Marlowe Hotel in Cambridge from Friday, Nov. 29 to Tuesday, Dec. 24.@tarawestfashion
Miracle is located in the lobby of the Kimpton Marlowe Hotel in Cambridge from now until Christmas Eve. Bartenders will don their favorite ugly Christmas sweaters while making Miracle’s specialty cocktails served in whimsical mugs. Small bites are also available from the Kimpton’s restaurant, Bambara Kitchen & Bar.
Miracle is open from 5 to 10 p.m. Sunday through Wednesday, 5 to 11 p.m. Thursday and Friday and 4 to 11 p.m. Saturday.
Maccabee Bar is a Hanukkah-themed pop-up bar at The Charles Hotel in Cambridge.The Charles Hotel
The Hanukkah pop-up Maccabee Bar is back for its seventh year at Noir Bar at The Charles Hotel in Harvard Square in Cambridge.
The bar has Jewish-themed cocktails, including The Hebrew Hammer (a jelly doughnut-inspired sour drink) and the Shin Shin, Put One In (an after-dinner cocktail with dark rum, cacao, Oloroso sherry and amaro).
Maccabee Bar will be up from now until New Year’s Day. Noir Bar is open from 4 p.m. to midnight Monday and Tuesday and 4 p.m. to 1 a.m. Wednesday through Saturday. Reservations can be made online.
By Claudie Bellanger Globe Correspondent,Updated December 6, 2024, 5:53 p.m.
Members of The Floor Lords perform at a breakdancing competition in 2023. See them at WBUR CitySpace on Wednesday.Vincent Alban For The Boston Glo
Monday
Holiday Harmony
The New England Conservatory presents “Into the Holidays,” a festive concert celebration at Jordan Hall featuring the NEC Chamber Singers, NEC Symphonic Winds, and Navy Band Northeast. The musicians will play seasonal favorites, including singalong numbers. 7:30 p.m. Live stream option available. Free, but tickets required at necmusic.edu.
Wednesday
Bust a Move
As part of its “Ones to Watch: Boston’s Emerging Artists” series, WBUR CitySpace hosts The Floor Lords, a dance crew that uses hip-hop to empower local youth. The dancers will discuss their history and mission, perform a number, and teach the crowd some moves. Tickets start at $10 for students; $20 general admission. 6 p.m. wbur.org/events
Thursday
Nighttime Nostalgia
Step back in time at the MIT Museum for a night in the ‘90s. Its 21-plus “After Dark: Made in the ‘90s” event will feature retro games, a discussion of the decade’s space exploration pursuits with former astronaut Jeffrey Hoffman, drinks for purchase from Lamplighter Brewing Co., and more. Groove to the sound of the era’s video game music as well as DJ sets. $20. 6 to 9 p.m. mitmuseum.mit.edu
Opens Friday
Gifts Galore
Need to do some holiday shopping? Check off everyone on your list at the annual Harvard Square Holiday Fair, which runs Friday through Sunday this weekend and next, at 1426 Massachusetts Avenue. Featuring a wide variety of vendors, you’ll find everything from art to jewelry to clothing to self-care products. harvardsquareholidayfair.com
Saturday
Winter Stroll
Make the most of the season’s short days! Mass Audubon hosts a candlelit Winter Walk through the trails of the Ipswich River Wildlife Sanctuary. Begin the night by making your own lantern for the journey in the sanctuary’s barn before immersing yourself in the sights and sounds of the season. 4 to 6 p.m. $18 members, $20 nonmembers. Registration required at massaudubon.org.
Capuchin friars bring food and supplies to Harvard Square’s homeless.
by Lydialyle Gibson
On Thursday afternoon at exactly 3 o’clock, a small white van emerged from the swirl of traffic in Harvard Square and pulled over next to the Cambridge kiosk. Five people climbed out—three wearing winter coats over their long brown robes—and began setting up a temporary coffee and hot-chocolate stand at the back of the vehicle, with sweeteners, stirrers, and napkins neatly laid out next to tall containers of cream. On a small blackboard behind them, the day’s menu of sandwiches was printed: ham and cheese, turkey and cheese, baloney and cheese, peanut butter and jelly. The Capuchin Mobile Ministries had arrived.
The white van, loaded with food, drink, and supplies, makes seven stops in Cambridge and Boston. | PHOTOGRAPH BY CHRIS SHANE
Three times a week—on Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays—a group of Capuchin friars based in Jamaica Plain bring food and supplies to the homeless, making stops at seven spots in Cambridge and Boston. “It’s an opportunity to build relationships,” says Amanda Grant-Rose, Ed.M. ’10, director of stewardship and engagement for the Mobile Ministries, who rides along with the van once or twice a month. “It’s a chance to be with people”—and, importantly, she adds, “We come to them.”
Besides sandwiches and hot drinks, the group (which usually consists of two or three friar chaplains and two or three lay volunteers) hands out street necessities such as hats, gloves, socks, hand warmers, and Mylar blankets. They also can help connect people to other outreach agencies and social services. The coffee they offer is made to order. That’s an important detail, Grant-Rose says: “Just the dignity in giving someone not just a cup of coffee, but a cup of coffee made the way they like it.”
That kind of care and attention guides the whole effort, says Brother Paul Fesefeldt, who started the Mobile Ministries in August 2020. “This is a ministry of accompaniment,” he says, “a ministry of presence.” A central part of the mission is spiritual care, but in the broadest possible sense. “Some people just want to be heard,” he says. “We have a guy who, every time we see him, he tells us a story for 20 minutes. And then sometimes with other people, it’s like, ‘Just pray for me, Brother.’” One of the regulars the group sees often, recently asked the friars to pray for his father, who had a stroke. “There’s a cliché that is attributed to St. Francis that says, ‘Preach the gospel always, and if necessary, use words,’” Fesefeldt says. “How you are is how you preach. We’re not a proselytizing ministry; we’re not here to try to get people to go back to church. We’re here to meet them where they’re at, kind of like what Pope Francis said about the Church when he first became pope: a spiritual field hospital.”
Fesefeldt (left) and Grant-Rose wait for visitors to arrive during a stop earlier this fall. | PHOTOGRAPH BY CHRIS SHANE
Grant-Rose joined the organization in August, after more than a decade of service work in the United States and East Africa. The daughter of a Presbyterian minister and a social worker, she studied special education at the University of Arizona and taught school in Tucson for two years before earning a master’s degree in social work from the University of Pennsylvania and moving from there to the Usambara Mountains in Tanzania, where she helped create a university program to train special-education teachers. After returning to study international education and policy at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, she worked as a program director for a small nonprofit called Lift Up Africa, splitting her time between the United States and East Africa. She first met Fesefeldt several years ago when they both worked at Common Cathedral, an ecumenical outdoor church in Boston with worship services and outreach programs for homeless people. She was his supervisor, and the two used to dream, Grant-Rose says, about starting something like the Mobile Ministries. “Brother Paul would say, wouldn’t it be great if we could do what we do, but go to people and find them in their living rooms, instead of them having to come find us? That would really change the dynamic, change the relationships we can have with people.”
On Thursday in Harvard Square, a half-dozen people ventured over to the van for food or supplies. The group stays at each stop for 20 minutes, and often one of the brothers will scout the area on foot after they arrive, to alert people to their presence, and to bring them supplies if they don’t want to come to the van. “It’s important to walk around, because people see us, even if we don’t see them,” Fesefeldt says. Soon after the group set up, a youngish man made his way over and, after perusing the menu, asked for a ham and cheese sandwich. A few minutes later, a woman pushing a wheeled utility cart filled with two heavy bags approached hesitantly. She accepted a sandwich but said that what she really needed was socks and gloves—did they have any? Another man came over smiling, and after receiving a cup of coffee, stayed and chatted for 15 minutes, talking and laughing, half in Spanish, half English.
Harvard Square is often one of the quieter stops, Fesefeld says—in Central Square that day, the group saw 20 people—but the van never leaves early, even if there’s a lull. Every stop lasts for 20 minutes, every time. “People count on us being here,” he says. “And sometimes people don’t want to come up right away. They want to wait until the very end.” Just before the group packed up to leave, a man with a backpack and a thin scarf drifted over and asked for a turkey sandwich and what Fesefeldt calls a “Capuchin mocha”: half-coffee, half-hot chocolate. The air was getting colder. The man talked quietly with a volunteer and ate the sandwich as he waited for his drink. When one of the brothers handed him the steaming cup, he smiled. “Thank you,” he said and turned to walk back the same way he’d come.
Ben Abercrombie never stopped working after he was paralyzed in his first Harvard football game. Seven years later, he’s on the cusp of his degree.
Ben (center) and his parents Sherri (left) and Marty at the 2024 Bowl for Ben event.Katelynn Stalaboin
Ben Abercrombie, Harvard football player, loved nothing more than diving into the numbers of sports. Whether by adding to his own tackle total as a standout freshman safety or parsing the odds of victory for the other half of his Crimson heart, his hometown University of Alabama.
For as long as battles have been waged on the fields of play, numbers have helped tell the stories. But these days, a different set of numbers help tell Ben’s story, reflecting the challenges of a life forever altered on Sept. 16, 2017.
That’s when Abercrombie, playing his first career game for Harvard at the University of Rhode Island, broke his neck making a tackle. The freak collision left Ben paralyzed from the neck down, and left a family, a football program, a college campus, and an extended Boston community finding a new way forward.
Now, with an important milestone in that journey approaching, it is those different numbers that help quantify the heart and determination of this inspiring young man.
Three, as in hours it takes Ben (with the help of his parents, Marty and Sherri) to get up and ready for each day.
Seven, as in years Ben has spent as a Cambridge undergrad, taking one, two, or three (as he is currently) classes a term.
Seventeen, as in hours it takes for Marty and a friend to drive Ben’s customized van the 1,100-plus miles from home in Hoover, Ala., to the kitted-out dorm suite in Harvard’s Winthrop House.
Ben Abercrombie is reflected in his Harvard Crimson jersey, which he donned for his one career game at Rhode Island in 2017.Stan Grossfeld
There’s $37,000, about how much it costs for each MedFlight that transports Ben and Sherri, a registered nurse, and the motorized wheelchair across that same 1,100-plus miles.
Or $600,000, the amount in the Benson M. Abercrombie ‘21 Endowment Fund, available for yearly distribution to Ben or any Harvard student affected by catastrophic injury, and built by the hard work of the Harvard Varsity Club and its executive director, Bob Glatz.
Or six, as in the sixth annual fundraiser at Harvard Square’s El Jefe’s Taqueria this Tuesday, Dec. 10. Owner John Schall donates every penny of sales — on site, to go, or online gift cards — to the Abercrombie fund, efforts that along with the yearly Bowl for Ben or virtual 3.2k runs have filled the fund’s coffers.
And then there’s one.
As in one semester left until Ben graduates with a degree in economics. A spring 2025 milestone he never once lost sight of or let go of no matter what constraints his paralysis brought.
“When you’re in the middle of the journey, sometimes the days are long, but it seems like the weeks go by quickly,” said Marty, Ben’s dad. “It helps us, both me and my wife, to know that so many people are inspired by Ben and this journey. We kind of feel like we’re along for the ride. We support him, we wouldn’t have it any other way. Since Ben got injured, our focus has been on supporting him.
“I think now he’s just looking forward to the next chapter of life, what it may hold. We’re all ready to get across the finish line, to have a Harvard graduate. Most of Ben’s friends from college and high school have graduated, and he’s definitely ready to join them, to move on to the next part of his life.”
Perhaps he’ll join a financial services firm. Maybe he’ll someday represent athletes as clients, finding a niche in the sports arena he loves so much. He could enroll in new clinical trials to continue toward his goal of walking again. He’ll definitely continue therapies that help the diaphragmatic pacer he had implanted increase his functionality and, hopefully, get him off a ventilator.
And he’ll absolutely continue watching college football and staying in touch with friends through his computer, which he controls with eye gaze technology.
Doug Henze has known Ben since they were nine years old. The two played youth football together (with Marty coaching) before going to different Hoover, Ala., high schools. They took their first official flight to Harvard together to start their freshman year.
When Ben was the only freshman to make that fateful road trip to Kingston, Doug was back in the home locker room with teammates, cheering him on. When the gravity of the injury was known, he continued to watch his friend in awe.
“You could always see it, Ben was a really gritty, determined guy who was going to get things done,” he said. “Even after the injury, he was always talking about getting back up to Harvard, finishing his degree, getting it done. To see it from his parents, the way they uprooted their lives, the whole familial effort and the determination to get it done, I’m just proud of him, to know him from then to now.”
As Ben worked, the world went on. Harvard coach Tim Murphy, only steps away when Ben was injured, retired in January. But not before enjoying regular Tuesday post-therapy visits with Ben and his parents that became the highlight of his week. Not before growing close enough to the family that they spend Thanksgiving with him on Cape Cod.
“A lot of times as a coach, predictably and understandably, you do everything you can to inspire your student athletes. With Ben, it works completely the other way,” Murphy said. “I already miss the Tuesday morning conversations. I’m going to miss them when they’re no longer coming to Thanksgiving. But I think the good news is that, for him to accomplish what he’s accomplished under these circumstances is just amazing. And seeing that connection you have in our sport — those guys are his brothers for life.”
It’s the type of lifelong bond that was celebrated at the football banquet held after this year’s Yale game. Ben received a coveted Harvard varsity sweater and a vaunted Major H award, and watched as another Badger award (named in his honor) went to the player who showed tenacity and grit.
“That’s that Crim brotherhood,” Henze said, “where we all know what it’s like to trudge across that bridge in the snow to get to work. It’s amazing to see everybody willing to keep that going for Ben.”
That they have, opening the effort so far and wide that the world can join in, too. Come Tuesday, Andy Aurich’s current Harvard players will be pounding the pavement; impromptu Christmas Carols, pop song serenades, and not-so-gentle cajoling beckoning all passersby into El Jefe’s. Schall, who has made a life of helping others coping with paralysis much the same way his own brother, Mike, has since a high school car accident, hopes to break $50,000 in sales.
“It’s been a really great thing,” Schall said. “Probably a third of the Harvard undergraduate students come to the restaurant that day. I’m just hoping this year we can set a new record. Nobody walks down the sidewalk that they don’t pull into the restaurant. That’s all they have to do, just go eat. We do everything else. I say it all the time. It’s my favorite day of the year.”
It’s a day about helping, about giving, about believing, and about hoping. It’s a day about kindness and love.
“You watch the news, you see so many terrible things happen locally and around the world, but we get to see the positive side of humanity,” Marty said. “We get to see a lot of compassion and love, a lot of smiling faces around. They make you feel like you’re at home, even 1,200 miles away from home.”
It’s a day about Ben.
“At the end of the day, no matter what happens, Ben is still the same guy I’ve always known,” said Henze. “The same fighter I’ve always known.”
By spring, there’ll be one pretty big difference, though. He’ll be Ben Abercrombie, Harvard graduate.
BOSTON – Boston’s Bridge Over Troubled Waters is tackling the challenges homeless youth face by bringing the help they need right to them.
Offering help to homeless youth
A large white van sits near the Park Street Station at Boston Common. It’s a shelter on wheels for homeless teens and children sleeping in or passing through Boston Common.
“We pick places where a lot of young people are known to hang out,” said Peter Ducharme, who runs Bridge Over Troubled Water’s mobile medical van.
The van parks in the Common and Harvard Square every weekday evening, meeting homeless youth where they are and inviting them in for a warm drink and a sandwich.
“They’re able to see other young people are here, so that makes it a little more comfortable,” Ducharme said.
Twenty to 30 youths sit and eat in the van every night. Half of them take advantage of the van’s clinic as well. Volunteer doctors, nurses, nurse practitioners and physician assistants treat common illnesses or administer first aid. But what they’re really doing is building rapport and trust with Boston’s homeless youth.
“Often, they’re really disenchanted with services, so this is an opportunity to have a different experience.”
Providing services to homeless youth
From there, people like Ducharme encourage homeless teens to take it a step further, encouraging them to visit the Bridge shelter and take advantage of its educational and career programs.
“It’s always intimidating and uncomfortable to be an 18/19-year-old in a service setting here there’s also 50/60-year-olds, so to have a place just for young people is really important,” Ducharme said.
About half of all the people the Bridge Over Troubled Waters staff members meet in the van do eventually visit the shelter. Sometimes, it just takes one encounter; other times, it takes many, so Ducharme and his team have no plans of stopping anytime soon.
“Young people have really fantastic goals but are often just struggling to think about how get over the barriers to achieve them,” Ducharme said.
Once people do transition from the van to the shelter, they have access to a multitude of different services. They can work to get their GED or get connected with jobs. The main goal, of course, is to find permanent housing.
The former Beat Brew Hall, seen Friday, is the future site of Lou’s in Cambridge’s Harvard Square. (Photo: Marc Levy)
The storied and serial-tenanted 13 Brattle St. in Harvard Square is expected to welcome Lou’s, a 10,000-square-foot lounge space for cocktails, flatbread and live music, in 2025.
John DiGiovanni, president of Trinity Property Management in Cambridge, announced the lounge’s opening in a press release Wednesday, saying he “aims to create a bar and gathering space that feels familiar and timeless in the square – a neighborhood that he and his family have considered a second home for almost 50 years.”
Formerly home to jazz bar Beat Brasserie (originally known as the Beat Hotel) until September 2018, then reinvented as Beat Brew Hall that month – until the pandemic shuttered and reshuttered the Hall’s doors following an attempted reopening in May 2022 —13 Brattle St. has seen businesses come and go, and even indulged a theater stint with “The Gaaga” phantasmagoria production last summer. The building has been in limbo since Beat Brew Hall closed. Lou’s is next up to make the space work.
The live music could help reinvigorate nightlife in the square. Church Street has The Sinclair performance space and the folk haven Club Passim, and Regattabar brings in jazz acts a few blocks away, but the area is no longer known for live entertainment. (The Comedy Studio recently reopened on John F. Kennedy Street with nightly or twice-nightly bills of comics.) The previous jazzy iterations of 13 Brattle St. by the teams behind The Beehive, Cósmica & Spy Bar in Boston’s South End could seat between 330 and 360 people.
Lou’s will operate in partnership with the team behind Vermont-founded American Flatbread, which boasts locations across New England – including a restaurant paired with Sacco’s candlepin bowling in Somerville’s Davis Square.
The “subterranean space” in Harvard Square is expected to get a makeover by Elder & Ash, an interior design firm in Amesbury, according to the release.
“Experience collectors” Rob Blood and Megan Kennedy, Elder & Ash’s husband-and-wife hotelier designer team, approach design by looking “at the history of the building, the past identities, the current use. We feel that connection to neighborhood, to history and to people; the grit and the beauty, is what fuels a memorable experience,” the firm’s website states.
Cambridge Day reached out to DiGiovanni’s media contact, Mary DiLeo, for information about Lou’s opening.
“We’re not ready to share additional details about Lou’s just yet,” DiLeo wrote in an email.
Information will be announced in the coming months, she said.
With room for some bar pizza and salt and vinegar chips in between.
By Kara Baskin Globe Correspondent,Updated November 5, 2024, 10:00 a.m.
The Charles Hotel’s Sean Lizotte.
Sean Lizotte, 45, has spent the past almost 20 years at Henrietta’s Table and the Charles Hotel in Harvard Square, but his love for food got started eating at Kelly’s Roast Beef before family trips to Cape Cod and watching Julia Child on his parents’ rabbit-eared TV set. His tastes remain humble: When he’s not working, he’s enjoying bar pizza at Venus or O’Toole’s not far from his house in Whitman.
Tell me about your job.
I’m the executive chef at The Charles Hotel and Henrietta’s Table. I’ve worked there for almost 19 years. I started out as a low-level sous chef and came up through the ranks. I took over for Peter Davis about 2½ years ago, when he retired. I oversee Noir’s food; banquets; room service; Henrietta’s Table; the cafeteria, of course, for our wonderful employees, which are very important to the hotel. Without them, we wouldn’t be who we are. We also have a little small sandwich shop called Pronto. I oversee the menu there also.
I cook breakfast. I cook lunch. I’m not afraid to work a station, even though I’m in charge. I’ve washed dishes when somebody’s called out — I love my team. I want them to be able to fully understand what I put into it so that, hopefully, I get the same in return.
Let’s talk about your beginnings as a chef. How’d you get started?
I moved around a lot, but all within Massachusetts. I grew up in Winthrop and Revere. We always summered on the Cape. We were lucky enough that before my dad got married and had children, he bought land, dirt cheap, and he built a house when I was about 3 years old. We would spend weekends, school vacations, and summers on the Cape, which was awesome. We’d go to Kelly’s Roast Beef on Friday nights, and we’d get either fish and chips or sandwiches, and then we’d drive to the Cape.
My first job was at Bayberry’s. Now I think it’s Lambert’s — a small mom-and-pop restaurant where they did everything from scratch. We cooked turkeys in-house to slice for sandwiches. We made our own soups, which was pretty unheard of for these little, tiny restaurants. They did breakfast, lunch, and dinner. They used to do like 800 to 900 covers for breakfast.
My father’s father, my grandfather, was an amazing cook. Unfortunately, died in his 60s. But all I remember when I was a kid is: I was the first male grandchild on that side — the whole nine. I would show up at his house, I want to say 3 years old, and he’d have me in the kitchen on top of a stool stirring pots while he was making gravy. We were always at his house. I just remember my parents freaking out that I was going to fall into a pot at one point.
He was French-Canadian, and everything was classic French-style all the way through, from heavy butter in mashed potatoes and a little bit of cream to help it out, and then just turkey being stuffed with stuffing, the old-school way.
My mom used to sit me in front of the television. We had a simple color TV with rabbit ears. I’d watch Julia Child, and I think that was my driving force behind a lot of the cooking. I used to watch that daily, and I can always remember my mom coming in and being like, “I think Julia may have had a little bit too much today!” She’d pull me away from the TV at that point.
Chef Julia Child. Sony Pictures
What’s your favorite meal of all time?
My dad made a French meat pie, and unfortunately, I probably haven’t had it in 12 years. It was ground pork, cooked slowly for 12 to 16 hours, just simmered down with either chicken stock or he’d sometimes just do water, just salt and pepper, super slow, and then he would bake it inside of a fresh shell. There are variations where people add potato, too, but we never did potato. That was his big selling point. Potato was cheating. If you cook the meat right, it should bind correctly.
What about food that you can’t stand?
Oh, man, that’s a tough one. You know, you go to certain restaurants and they have something that definitely makes no sense to have on their menu. I live on the South Shore, and there are some restaurants that say they’re a steakhouse, but they have sushi. It just doesn’t make sense to me. I’m not going to order sushi at a steakhouse. But I try to have a pretty open mind.
What do you wish could improve about the Boston or Cambridge dining scene?
My thing right now is that I think there are sometimes too many restaurants that do the same thing. I’m a big fan of tapas. My wife and I traveled to Spain years ago. I like the opportunity to try a lot of different items. I think there’s a lack of those restaurants.
Where do you eat when you’re not working?
I live in Whitman, which is south of Boston. It’s next to Brockton, Bridgewater, Abington, and Hanson. It’s funny: We ordered pizza last night on the way home. Otto Portland just opened up in Weymouth; it’s a small chain. I love bar pizza too. In Whitman, there’s Venus that does bar pizza. There’s O’Toole that does bar pizza. Phenomenal. At Otto, though, my daughter really likes the mashed potato, bacon, and scallion pizza.
In Plymouth, my wife and I like Cork and Table. I’m really bad. I spent a lot of time in the city. My wife and I lived there for a little while before we bought a house and had children. But we don’t tend to drive to the city too much anymore, unfortunately, just because of the fact it’s an hour drive each way, minimum.
You have two teenagers. How do you balance family life with working life?
It’s not always easy. I won’t lie about it, but I’m very lucky. My wife currently works overnights, and I work mornings, so I usually go in between 4:30 and 5 in the morning, and I’m usually out between 4 and 6 p.m. depending on what’s going on. Sometimes it’s later, but not usually.
I’m usually off Monday and Tuesday, or Tuesday and Wednesday, or Monday and Wednesday. I try to always be off on Tuesday because my son has hockey that night, so at least I get to go to the practice with him, and my daughter has soccer usually, too. So I’ll try my best to drive her and her friends one way or something like that. I always look forward to them having night games, which is awesome, because 90 percent of the night games, I can make.
Would you ever encourage either of your kids to go into the culinary field?
My daughter loves being involved in cooking. Something we don’t do at the restaurant is homemade pasta, because there’s an Italian restaurant in the hotel, Enza. But I’ll make gnocchi, homemade pasta, at home with my daughter, whenever I can. Sometimes her cousin will come over, her friends will come over, we’ll make pasta for dinner. I’ll go through the whole process with them. They enjoy rolling it out and being involved in that way.
She loves the pastry chef at the hotel. His name is Dan Angelopolus. He’s phenomenal. He makes everything from scratch. He works incredibly hard. I always look up to him, because it seems like he always has the right answer for any problem — he’s the person you can just go to.
He’s making homemade Pop Tarts right now for Sunday brunch. So I brought home a brown-sugar-glazed one, and she was like: “This is the best thing ever!” Also, she swears by his chocolate croissant. I’m afraid that this is what she’s going to want to do for a living.
What makes you afraid?
The worst part about doing this and having children is missing so much. I mean, they really respect and love coming to the hotel. They love coming to the restaurant. And they really enjoy my days off. I mean, my wife is a wonderful home cook; I’ll never take anything away from her. But they always look forward because they know that’s what I do for a living. A lot of their friends like to come over and stuff like that, so I do my best. This morning was a little hectic, but I usually ask them what they want for dinner, and I’ll try to do it for them.
Which celebrities have you served?
Tommy Lee Jones was in the other day. He’s in a lot. John Lithgow has been there recently. What’s his name? Not Matt Damon; not Ben Affleck. Casey Affleck — he’s been here recently. There’s always somebody coming in: Ben Affleck and J. Lo stayed [at the Charles] not too long ago, before they divorced.
Lastly: What’s your favorite snack?
I do like salt and vinegar chips. That would be my guilty downfall, probably. If my son goes to the store, he’s going to tell me to buy Lay’s. I’m not a fan. I like Cape Cod. I grew up on Cape Cod. It reminds me of the beach during the summer.
